May 27, 2022 03:14AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
The world's second-most valuable cryptocurrency continued to decline in early trading in Europe on Friday, as participants feared further delays to key changes aimed at increasing scalability.
This news suggests that Ethereum, like all other cryptocurrencies and momentum-driven assets, is in for an uncomfortable wait for one of the biggest drivers of investment value to materialize. Much of the speculative interest in Ethereum over the past year has been tied to the anticipation of a so-called "merger," which proponents believe will give it a major competitive advantage over Bitcoin in the future as the two currencies vie for cryptocurrency market share.
At 3:10 a.m. EDT, Ethereum dipped to a 14-month low of $1,717.66 before cutting its losses slightly to trade at $1,773.70.
Overall, cryptocurrencies have come under pressure from rising interest rates in the United States and, most notably, the collapse of the network on which the TerraUSD algorithmic stablecoin is based.
Ethereum's troubles in recent days have also affected sentiment toward other alternative currencies.
Cardano is down 12% in the past week, while Solana is down 19%. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has lost relatively little, 3.5%, benefiting from the increased liquidity that has made it something of a safe haven in a generally negative market. However, even Bitcoin is now trading at its lowest level since December 2020.
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